Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copier, a printer, or a facsimile machine.
Related Art
In an image forming apparatus employing the electrophotographic method, a surface of a photoconductor image bearer is charged by a charging device or a charger, typically by corona discharge.
Processes performed in the image forming apparatus employing the electrophotographic method include, for example, (1) charging the surface of the photoconductor by a charging member such as a charger or a charging roller; (2) forming an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photoconductor with an LD or LED, and discharging the surface of the photoconductor; (3) developing the latent image on the discharged portion on the photoconductor with toner by a developing device to render the latent image visible; (4) transfer the written toner image onto a transfer member such as an intermediate transfer belt or a sheet of paper; and (5) fixing the toner image onto the sheet of paper by a fixing device.
In the above transfer process (4), residual toner remaining on the photoconductor not transferred from the photoconductor to the transfer member is collected by a cleaner, so that the residual toner does not adversely affect subsequent image forming processes.